1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing control apparatus, a processing control method, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, which control mask processing for an image sensed by an image sensing unit with a variable image sensing position.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image sensing apparatus, such as a monitoring camera that monitors, for example, a street, which, often, has a privacy masking function of superposing a privacy mask on a sensed image to protect privacy. In a camera equipped with a pan head, a tracking function of drawing a privacy mask at a position to be masked is required in accordance with the image sensing position. At this time, when the camera is configured to drive the pan head during image sensing using a slow shutter at, for example, night, it may become impossible to protect privacy, as only the superposition position of the privacy mask is updated to move, even during the period in which light is accumulated and the image is not updated over a plurality of frames.
To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-146890 discloses a technique of generating a correction mask from data obtained by calculating the mask position for the current pan head position from mask setting coordinates stored in a mask setting, and that are obtained by calculating the mask position for the previous pan head position, and adding the correction mask in the direction in which the mask progresses.
Also, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0036877 discloses a technique of, in loading an image including coordinates in a mask setting, superposing a mask on a region including a pan head position, at which loading is done at the current timing of an object, and that at which loading is done at the previous timing of the object.
However, the techniques described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-146890 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0036877 pose a problem that the privacy mask shifts from the start to stoppage of movement of the pan head if image sensing processing and mask superposition processing have a time difference between them.